In a world increasingly illuminated by artificial light, the beautiful night skies of a small coastal town in South Australia have attracted international recognition. Carrickalinga on the Fleurieu Peninsula is Australia’s first official Dark Sky Community. The title rewards a dedicated community effort to combat light pollution and preserve the natural environment at night.
The journey began three years ago when I was a PhD candidate at the Australian National University, working on the value of night skies. I was a regular visitor to Carrickalinga, but this time conversations at a picnic one evening turned to the clarity and brilliance of the stars. I was inspired to work with the locals to nominate Carrickalinga as a “Dark Sky Place”.
My recent research suggests restoring dark skies would be worth US$3.4 trillion (A$5.16 trillion) to the world, annually. That’s largely because light pollution is disrupting nocturnal pollinators, altering predator-prey interactions, and changing the behaviours of nocturnal species.
Light pollution has detrimental effects on wildlife, human health, and ecosystem functions and services. But there are simple solutions. By embracing responsible lighting practices, everyone can contribute to a healthier future in which the wonders of the night sky are accessible to all.
Understanding light pollution
Light pollution refers to human alteration of outdoor light levels. Excessive or misdirected artificial light brightens the night sky, diminishing our ability to see stars.
Research shows the problem is getting worse. Light pollution increased by
7–10% a year from 2011 to 2022. More than a third of people on Earth cannot see the Milky Way.
Light pollution not only affects our view of the cosmos, but also wastes energy and money, contributes to climate change and has significant repercussions for both ecological and human health.
Nocturnal animals such as bats and certain birds rely on darkness to navigate and find food. Insects, crucial for pollination and as a food source for other wildlife, are also affected. Artificial light at night is contributing to their decline.
In humans, studies have shown artificial light interferes with circadian rhythms, leading to sleep disorders and other health issues.
The global Dark Sky movement
DarkSky International, formerly known as the International Dark Sky Association, is a global network of volunteers combating light pollution. The non-profit organisation established in 1988 is based in Tuscon, Arizona in the United States. But more than 193,000 people across more than 70 countries are involved, including astronomers, environmental scientists and the public.
The International Dark Sky Places Program was born in 2001 when Flagstaff, Arizona was named the first International Dark Sky City. Now the program certifies five types of Dark Sky Places: sanctuaries, reserves, parks, communities, and urban night sky.
DarkSky says the aim is to “preserve and protect the nighttime environment and our heritage of dark skies through environmentally responsible outdoor lighting”. It recognises places that demonstrate a commitment to reducing light pollution through public education, policy, and promoting responsible lighting practices.
There are now well over 200 Dark Sky Places across the globe. This covers more than 160,000 square kilometres in 22 countries on six continents.
Protecting the night with International Dark Sky Places since 2001.
Australia’s Dark Sky Places
Australia is home to several Dark Sky Places, each recognised for their exceptional night skies and dedication to reducing light pollution. These include:
Palm Beach earns global recognition for starry night skies | 9 News Australia.
Our journey in Carrickalinga
Since 2021, the Carrickalinga community has worked tirelessly towards achieving International Dark Sky Community certification. The journey involved several key initiatives:
Sky Quality Metering Program: regular measurements of sky brightness to monitor light pollution levels
Community engagement: presentations to community groups and the district council to raise awareness about light pollution, information stalls at local markets, community consultation process (led by the District Council of Yankalilla)
Educational materials: printed flyers, video, and a “Star Party” including a presentation on First Nations cosmology
Policy development: collaboration with the district council to create a lighting policy including public lighting design that complies with both Australian standards and DarkSky requirements.
Carrickalinga is currently upgrading existing public lighting to reduce light pollution. This will involve a new lighting design plan that reduces correlated colour temperature, ensuring shielded downward-facing lights minimise skyglow, glare and light trespass.
Reducing light pollution by upgrading lighting fixtures does not compromise safety. Dark sky does not mean dark ground.
Light pollution has become such a problem because our lights are unnecessarily bright and poorly designed. Fixing the problem simply involves changing the colour from white to amber, shielding and targeting lights so they do not shine upwards and outwards, and reducing wattage where it is surplus to requirements for people’s safety.
Carrickalinga became Australia’s first International Dark Sky Community in May, 2024.The Backyard Universe
How you can help
Achieving and maintaining dark sky status is not difficult but it does require ongoing community effort. Here are the five principles for responsible outdoor lighting, which apply equally to domestic as well as public lighting:
Useful – use light only if it is needed and has a clear purpose
Targeted – direct light so it falls only where it is needed
Low light levels – light should be no brighter than necessary
Controlled – use light only when it is needed
Warm colours – use warm coloured lights wherever possible and avoid short-wavelength (blue–violet) light.
An inspirational journey
Achieving International Dark Sky Community status was a significant achievement in preserving the natural night environment and educating the local community about light pollution. This accomplishment demonstrates the power of community action and serves as a model for others.
By protecting our night skies, we safeguard a vital part of our natural and cultural heritage and also promote healthier ecosystems and communities. Carrickalinga’s journey serves as an inspiring example of what can be achieved through collective effort and dedication to preserving our planet’s natural beauty.
I would like to acknowledge the enormous contribution of Carrickalinga Dark Sky Community volunteer Sheryn Pitman, who works for Green Adelaide in the South Australian Department for Environment and Water, and helped write this article.
Sharolyn Anderson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Species are disappearing at an alarming rate around the world. But Australia’s extinction crisis is especially severe – since European colonisation, we have lost about 100 species of animals and plants. The loss of 33 mammal species is largely due to canny invasive predators such as foxes and cats as well as destruction of habitat.
To try to stem the losses, many scientists and conservationists are turning to rewilding. This promising approach involves reintroducing species to their former habitats or relocating them to new areas where they have a better chance of survival.
To date, rewilding in Australia has worked best on islands free of foxes and cats and in fenced-off safe havens, which act like islands on the mainland.
But is there a way we could bring back vulnerable native species beyond the fence?
In research published today, we show how the humble mesa has potential to act as a reintroduction site for threatened species. You might associate these flat-topped, steep-sided landforms with American gunslinger westerns. But Australia has plenty of its own mesas.
What’s special about mesas?
By our count, there are now 23 fenced safe havens across Australia, and the number has been growing in recent years.
These sites work. But they require ongoing human input. You have to fence the land, make sure it stays fenced, and control for feral predators. When funding runs out, the havens can fall into disrepair and predators may eventually break back in.
We need supplementary approaches to add to our rewilding toolkit – outside the fences.
The reason we began investigating mesas is their shape. By definition, a mesa is an isolated flat-topped landform, elevated from its surrounding landscape by steep sides. The Spanish word “mesa” translates to “table” in English, reflecting their distinctive shape. But don’t be confused – a mesa is different to a tableland such as the Atherton Tablelands in northern Queensland. A mesa is generally smaller and stands alone.
We theorised the steep, largely vegetation-free sides of a mesa could act as natural barriers, slowing down fox and cat incursions. Better still, the isolation of these landforms might give extra protection to species vulnerable to fire.
Luckily for us, these landforms aren’t reserved for lonely cowboys on horseback and an Ennio Morricone soundtrack. We scoured satellite images and found 91 mesas just in New South Wales, each with a flat top larger than ten hectares.
Sky-islands: putting mesas to the test
To test our theories, we chose Mount Talaterang. This remote mountain in Morton National Park has a flat top of 317 hectares, making it one of the largest mesas we found in New South Wales.
We set up cameras on top of the mesa as well as in the surrounding bushland at the bottom of the steep slopes and gathered four months of data.
The results were exciting. As we had hoped, the top of the mesa was almost entirely free of invasive mammals. There were no foxes or rabbits. Feral cats were present atop the mesa, but in significantly lower numbers than in the lowlands. Better still, we spotted higher numbers of small native mammals such as antechinus species and spotted-tailed quoll atop the mesa than in the bush below.
By contrast, we spotted far more invasive mammals in the bush below the mesa. Specifically, we sighted foxes 633 times, and cats 338 times, whereas no foxes were recorded on the mesa, and we recorded only 5 sightings of cats.
On the mesa, we captured 26 instances of antechinuses and 20 of quolls, but saw zero antechinus and only one quoll in the lowlands.
What’s next?
These findings come from a single mesa, so we should be cautious about drawing wide conclusions. But because the difference is so pronounced, we hope our research spurs greater interest in testing whether mesas such as Mount Talaterang could offer a wilder way of rewilding, where we harness natural landforms for protection.
Mount Talaterang lies within Morton National Park. This park covers part of the historic range of locally threatened or regionally extinct species such as the southern brown bandicoot, long-nosed potoroo, parma wallaby, and the eastern quoll, which may be suitable future rewilding candidates.
To boost the chances of successful rewilding, we need to know more about what life would look like for these threatened species if we release them on a mesa. Would there be enough food? Are there reliable water sources? Will climate change make it harder to survive on top of these landforms?
Mesas crop up around the world, from South Africa to South America and Europe. But the rewilding potential of mesas in these regions has not yet been explored, to our knowledge.
We hope our research triggers new interest in these “sky islands” and other ways of rewilding species which we can use to supplement the proven methods of traditional fenced havens and islands.
Rob Brewster (WWF-Australia), Francesca Roncolato (WWF-Australia), Tom Jameson (University of Cambridge) and Mathew Crowther (University of Sydney) contributed to this research. WWF Australia partly funded this research through its Australian Wildlife and Nature Recovery Fund
WWF Australia partly funded this research through its Australian Wildlife and Nature Recovery Fund.
Thomas Newsome receives funding from the Australian Research Council. He is immediate past-president of the Australasian Wildlife Management Society and Council member of the Royal Zoological Society of NSW.
The race is on to transition to clean energy. Solar and wind farm developers are inundating regional communities in the hope they will host generation and transmission infrastructure. This extra capacity is needed to achieve the federal government target of 82% renewables in Australia by 2030.
The Clean Energy Council has estimated the capacity needed to come on line between 2026 and 2030 to hit this target. It equates to 5,400 megawatts (MW) of wind, 1,500MW of commercial solar farms and 3,600MW of rooftop solar each year.
The scale of this challenge is staggering. It amounts to an annual 240% expansion in added capacity compared to the past three years.
So how do developers entice communities to accept these projects? They typically offer payments to landholders. Community development funds are also popular, with developers helping to fund local needs such as housing and community services.
But these approaches have been inconsistent and lacking in transparency. Developers have been accused of acting opportunistically. There has been confusion and sometimes conflict between neighbours in regional communities.
In short, many regional communities feel left in the dark and short-changed. The energy transition is happening “to them” rather than “with them”. Research indicates these projects are much more likely to succeed when locals feel the project is theirs or includes them and they will share enduring benefits.
How are communities responding?
Some regional communities are taking matters into their own hands to re-balance negotiation with developers.
For example, the Wimmera Southern Mallee Collaboration in Victoria has brought together the community and the 12 energy companies with projects in the region. The state government, NGOs and trusted local consultants are supporting this work to agree a collaboration framework.
This framework will create the structure and commitments needed for energy businesses to collaborate and ensure communities benefit. These benefits include solutions to pressing local needs such as housing, childcare and other infrastructure and services.
Similarly, Hay Shire Council in the NSW Riverina has led consultation to increase community influence. The aim is to make clear to renewable developers what the locals do and don’t want.
State and federal governments as well as organisations such as the Clean Energy Council, The Energy Charter, RE-Alliance and Community Power Agency are also trying to level the playing field. One such initiative, Striking a New Deal, will support and fund one rural or regional body – a local council, association or organisation – to drive better local outcomes from local energy projects.
Yet challenges remain. Renewable energy developers are struggling to build their social licence to operate in regional communities. These challenges threaten to undermine the entire energy transition.
New business models are needed
Creative new business models are slowly emerging in Australia. One example is the community-owned Haystacks Solar Garden in Grong Grong, New South Wales. Another approach is to offer electricity rebates to residents living near wind and solar farms.
Sadly, these approaches tend to be the exception rather than the rule in Australia. Casting our eyes overseas may better inform our approach at home.
In Denmark, for example, the the Danish Renewable Energy Act has required at least 20% local community ownership for all new wind projects since 2009. Wind now generates 54% of Denmark’s electricity.
Similarly, community-owned projects play a big role in Germany’s Energiewende or energy transition. Germany boasts more than 1,700 energy communities, most of them co-operatives (55%) and limited liability companies (37%). Ownership and the ability to shape the local energy system are the key drivers for community participation.
The privately owned Midtfjellet 55 wind farm in Norway is more comparable to Australian approaches. Its owners are investing €1.8 million a year (A$3 million) into local infrastructure and activities for the community of 3,100 residents.
These numbers are played out across Europe. Strong political support and a mature regulatory environment are encouraging investment from households and industry alike.
The operator of Midtfjellet wind farm in Norway invests about A$3 million a year into the community of 3,100 residents.T. Holme/Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA
Involving and informing communities is vital
Closer to home, the Australian Energy Infrastructure Commissioner’s review of community engagement offers guiding principles of good practice. The Commonwealth-commissioned report was released in February. Its nine recommendations include “keeping communities better informed on energy transition goals, benefits and needs” and “equitably sharing the benefits of the transformation”.
Arron Wood of the Clean Energy Council welcomed the report’s findings, saying:
Community engagement and effective communication are the antidotes to the misinformation that is being used to stir division within some regional communities. Genuine engagement in good faith from all parties is needed to ensure that we get the balance right between managing community expectations and getting on with the job of building the generation, transmission and storage infrastructure that Australia urgently needs.
Importantly, the federal government has accepted all nine recommendations in principle. It recently released long-overdue national guidelines for community engagement and benefits for transmission projects.
States are also working closely with industry bodies and NGOs to provide guidance on community engagement. The NSW, Victoria and Queensland governments are offering payments to landholders for transmission projects.
Balancing regional community concerns with the need to accelerate the energy transition is clearly challenging. Government and industry appear to support a flexible approach to engagement and payments to landholders and communities. It is questionable, though, whether their concerns can be overcome without a more prescriptive, standardised approach to benefit-sharing.
The Australian government is ramping up preparations for a highly pathogenic and contagious strain of bird flu potentially reaching Australia via its Antarctic territory and Macquarie Island, warning it could devastate wildlife and be passed to people.
Government agencies led by the Australian Antarctic Division at a planning exercise in Hobart on Wednesday were told an influx of the virulent H5N1 Avian flu strain that has killed millions of seabirds, wild birds and poultry overseas was a case of “not if, but when”.
In an open-air courtroom set up in a nature reserve at Cobar, families from the Ngemba, Ngiyampaa, Wangaaypuwan and Wayilwan peoples secure one of the largest native title claims in the region’s history.
